This Sunday – Feb 20

This Sunday – Feb 20

The Lord’s Prayer.

 

I didn’t grow up in a church that said this prayer every Sunday, but I certainly knew it well enough.

 

I just didn’t know I had been saying it wrong.

 

Not the actual words, but the concepts behind the words.

 

Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

 

Conceptually, I always included one more word

Someday.

 

May thy kingdom come someday, I thought.

 

When Christ returns. When the world ends.

 

A theologian could explain how my concept was shaped by a dispensational theology that divides salvation history into distinct periods or dispensations. The Kingdom would come later. I certainly didn’t expect it now.

 

It never occurred to me that I was rendering Jesus’ prayer irrelevant for my life at that moment. Today, not someday.

 

The first public announcement Jesus made in Mark 1:14-15 was about the kingdom. The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.

 

There was an urgency to what Jesus said. It was like a crisis, demanding an immediate response.

 

This Sunday we will look at Jesus’ announcement and what he did when he saw a bunch of fishermen along the Sea of Galilee. Mark 1:14-20.

 

Life becomes a little bit different – okay, a lot different when the kingdom is near. And you know what? Most people sooner or later sense that it should be different.

 

What happens when God’s kingdom shows up?